Monday, 10 August 2009
The Turkish foreign minister said on Sunday that different energy corridors were not the alternatives of each other.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the energy deals signed with Russia this week created the north-south corridor, similar to the east-west corridor of the Nabucco pipeline.
"Therefore, they are not alternatives of each other," Davutoglu told a TV program on private Kanal 7 channel.
Davutoglu said Turkey did not have endless natural gas or oil resources. "However, we have such a geography that if we use it well, we can use the resources we do not own for our own advantage," he said.
The South Stream project would partly replace the planned extension of Blue Stream from Turkey through Bulgaria and Serbia to Hungary and Austria, and is seen as rival to the planned Nabucco pipeline. The completion is due by 2015.
The Nabucco project represents a new gas pipeline connecting the Caspian region, Middle East and Egypt via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary with Austria and further on with the Central and Western European gas markets.
Davutoglu said Russia was Turkey's number one trade partner with 40 billion USD of trade volume, and Turkey was Russia's number five partner.
Davutoglu said that Turkey and Russia signed customs agreements that would eliminate problems.
Also, he said rapprochement with Russia would definitely contribute to settlement of Upper Karabakh dispute.
"Because, we have to avoid the regional and global dispute area risk in the Black Sea and the Caucasus," he said.
Davutoglu said Turkey's perspective on the Caucasus was to normalize relations between itself and Armenia and between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The minister expressed Turkey's determination to normalize its relations with Armenia, and said talks were under way.
Davutoglu said normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations would contribute to solution of Azerbaijani-Armenian problem.
On the "Kurdish move" of the government, Davutoglu said this move should not be regarded as a move aiming at a certain group, but as a historic unification move.
"There may be circles who want to make these brothers enemies, but statesmen and intellectuals have a responsibility to protect this brotherhood," he said.
Davutoglu said no freedom should be intimidating, what was intimidating should be narrowing democratization, not broadening it.
The minister underlined importance of brotherhood and democratization in this process, and said he would visit Iraq in coming days.
On July 29, Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay made public the "Kurdish move" of the government with a press conference, expressing the government's belief that the so-called "Kurdish issue" would be solved with an egalitarian approach through democratization.
On August 2, Atalay met a group of journalists at a workshop titled "Solution of the Kurdish Issue: Towards a Turkey Model" at the Police Academy in capital Ankara.
A statement released after the meeting said the participants had a "fruitful brainstorming", and discussed ways to manage the different dynamics of the process, as well as short, medium and long-term measures needed to be taken within the framework of the democratization process.
